what a week, first ducks and now grouse.

tod osier

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The goal was to continue the great week and get Beaver on some grouse. We headed to Maine and planned to stay until filling my possession limit or until one of our bodies broke down.

Found a nice camp.
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We went out the first afternoon for an hour before dark to a spot I had not tried before, but looked good. Beav was birdy in 15 minutes, we flushed that bird and I thought we were golden. Within an hour we found more birds and got a great flush which resulted in a double. It went down hill from there, though. The days that followed were anything but easy putting in 8 hours in the field per day the next couple days, but we were able to get it done in the end.

Second flush, first retrieve.
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Typical habitat.
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Beav with a bird. He is a true pleasure to hunt with, what a machine.
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Reason for the birds.
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Fridge full of birds, food getting low, beer almost gone, time to go home!
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Brought back what seems like nearly half the gravel in Maine in the camper tires. This is after 500 miles at 65.
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Plenty of scenery. Overall, a great trip.
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tod osier said:
The goal was to continue the great week and get Beaver on some grouse. We headed to Maine and planned to stay until filling my possession limit or until one of our bodies broke down.

What? don't you work now, or at least show up in an office with a warm body? [w00t]

Nice pictures and write up. Thanks for sharing.
 
Looks like a great trip all around!!! I wish I could spend more time up there, such an amazing place. Beaver looks like a pro at everything he does!!!
 
Tod,

That looks like a great outing. Do you guys get blue grouse out there or just the ruffs?

We just had to put the red dog down about 2 weeks ago...
16 Years is a long haul for a golden, but not near long enough for chasing birds.
 
J. Overland said:
Nicely done. You and your dog certainly earned those birds. Maine is such a special place.

Yes, great people and sporting opportunity. I wish I'd spent more time in Maine living in the east, but I also wouldn't' trade it for the West.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
tod osier said:
The goal was to continue the great week and get Beaver on some grouse. We headed to Maine and planned to stay until filling my possession limit or until one of our bodies broke down.

What? don't you work now, or at least show up in an office with a warm body? [w00t]

Nice pictures and write up. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Dave, I had a nice week keeping out of the office. I have a busy day planned today, going to finish processing birds and hopefully go deer hunting.
 
Charles H. said:
Looks like a great trip all around!!! I wish I could spend more time up there, such an amazing place. Beaver looks like a pro at everything he does!!!

Thanks Charles, he is also a pro at a lot of things I don't post up like pro drooler and pro shadow and definitely more fragrant than other dogs. :).
 
todd tennyson said:
Tod,

That looks like a great outing. Do you guys get blue grouse out there or just the ruffs?

We just had to put the red dog down about 2 weeks ago...
16 Years is a long haul for a golden, but not near long enough for chasing birds.

Sorry to hear about your red dog, it seems like just yesterday you got him.

Only ruffs here or pa-trige as they call them in Maine.
 
Damn I miss fall in the northeast, great photos, thanks for sharing!
 
Nice trip Tod. Beaver did great, hard to believe he's not a year old. A good dog makes hunting so much more enjoyable than solo. He looks intense, I bet he's a great listener when you lecture the trees after a few suds at the campfire.
 
Carl said:
Damn I miss fall in the northeast, great photos, thanks for sharing!

It was neat, I was there for leaf drop. When I pulled in on Wed eve there were a lot of leaves and it was dreary and cloudy (so no pics), it rained and was gusty overnight and there was a thick carpet of leaves on everything (including my solar panels). Over the next day there was a serious drop. I wish I had taken pics of the same scenes before and after, but I didn't.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
Nice trip Tod. Beaver did great, hard to believe he's not a year old. A good dog makes hunting so much more enjoyable than solo. He looks intense, I bet he's a great listener when you lecture the trees after a few suds at the campfire.

He is just 13 months and now that we have been home a day he is back to full energy [w00t]. He is all business when working, and he doesn't get too over excited, which is real nice.

Leaves are pretty well down for your next trip up.
 
tod osier said:
He is just 13 months and now that we have been home a day he is back to full energy [w00t]. He is all business when working, and he doesn't get too over excited, which is real nice.

Leaves are pretty well down for your next trip up.

Ah, so he is about a year old. Wish I still had that youthful energy, takes me a week to recover from three days in the woods. [:/]

Glad you did well during the leaf drop, I always believed the birds to be spooky then. Probably heading up later this week, the last week of October is my favorite to hunt birds up there. No leaves or deer hunters.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
tod osier said:
He is just 13 months and now that we have been home a day he is back to full energy [w00t]. He is all business when working, and he doesn't get too over excited, which is real nice.

Leaves are pretty well down for your next trip up.

Ah, so he is about a year old. Wish I still had that youthful energy, takes me a week to recover from three days in the woods. [:/]

Glad you did well during the leaf drop, I always believed the birds to be spooky then. Probably heading up later this week, the last week of October is my favorite to hunt birds up there. No leaves or deer hunters.

We ran a LOT of birds that we didn't get into the air. With a young dog I didn't want to be too encouraging when is is obviously on something in case he is scenting snowshoe hares or robins. I'm sure plenty of times he was pushing grouse and not getting them to flush. I can't complain at all, and I've seen that before, but it is nice to get a flush on those birds just to know they are game birds even if you don't have a shot.

He only put up one woodcock that I know of and he was hunting really close, so I'd expect that was about it.
 
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Looks like a great trip Tod! I sometimes wish greatly I didn't live so far south. I could make trips a whole lot easier (like to the grouse woods or the prairies) if I lived somewhere more central.

Thanks for the fall color pictures....
 
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